Exclusive – Producer Bill Mechanic Updates us on the Movie Adaptation of TORSO

Just a few hours ago I was at a Coraline event that Focus Features put on in Beverly Hills. While I’ll have a ton of great interviews with director Henry Selick and some of the others that worked on the film, I managed to talk with former chairman of 20th Century Fox Bill Mechanic.

After Bill left Fox, he formed the independent production company Pandemonium and he’s the first one that thought Coraline would make a great movie. Since this is the man who made Fight Club, X-Men and Titanic, I’d like to think he knows what he’s doing.

Anyway, while there I managed to interview him about Coraline and the other projects he’s developing. One of those projects has been generating a lot of interest due to who’s attached and I got an update directly from Bill on what’s up.

The project I’m talking about is Torso, and it’s the film adaptation of the Marc Andreyko and Brian Michael Bendis’ graphic novel of the same name. Currently David Fincher is attached to direct the film with rumors of Jake Gyllenhaal and Matt Damon leading the cast.

For those unfamiliar, Torso was originally published as a six issued series by Image Comics and it tells the story of the real life “Torso Murderer”, a serial killer who was active during 1934 to 1938. He received his nickname because he left only the torsos of his victims. Without fingerprints or dental records, these victims were very difficult to identify in a time before DNA testing. The investigator on the case was Eliot Ness, Cleveland chief of police and former head of the Untouchables. (Thank you Wikipedia)

The big update is Torso should be in front of the cameras (hopefully) next March or April and it should be David Fincher’s next film. He also said all the online rumors were probably true. One last bit is the title might change and he also said the movie might be different from the graphic novel the way Fight Club (the movie) was different from the book. He says a lot more so if you’re interested watch the interview!

Anyway, look for a lot of Coraline interviews very soon. And just to let you know, we saw about 30 minutes today in 3D and it looked incredible. Fans of Neil Gaiman need not worry…this is going to be a great adaptation.

Bill Mechanic

·He talks about how he got involved with Coraline

·Torso talk – explains how he got involved – also says the people that are rumored to be attached probably are…

·Fight Club talk

·Says Torso the movie will be different than the graphic novel and says it’s like Fight Club in that relation…

·Also says the title might change

·Finally, says he hopes to be in front of the cameras in March or April of next year and it should be David Fincher’s next project